https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/30/hacker-fakes-german-ministers-fingerprints-using-photos-of-her-hands [p] Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Close dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption Skip to navigation Print subscriptions Sign in Search jobs Search US edition[ ] * US edition * UK edition * Australia edition * International edition * Europe edition The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian [ ] * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle ShowMoreShow More * [ ]News + View all News + US news + US elections 2024 + World news + Environment + Ukraine + Soccer + Business + Tech + Science + Newsletters + Wellness * [ ]Opinion + View all Opinion + The Guardian view + Columnists + Letters + Opinion videos + Cartoons * [ ]Sport + View all Sport + Soccer + NFL + Tennis + MLB + MLS + NBA + NHL + F1 + Golf * [ ]Culture + View all Culture + Film + Books + Music + Art & design + TV & radio + Stage + Classical + Games * [ ]Lifestyle + View all Lifestyle + Wellness + Fashion + Food + Recipes + Love & sex + Home & garden + Health & fitness + Family + Travel + Money * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Support us + Print subscriptions * [ ]US edition + UK edition + Australia edition + International edition + Europe edition * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + About Us + The Guardian app + Video + Podcasts + Pictures + Inside the Guardian + Guardian Weekly + Crosswords + Wordiply + Corrections * + Facebook + Twitter * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + About Us * US * US elections 2024 * World * Environment * Ukraine * Soccer * Business * Tech * Science * Newsletters * Wellness fingerprint [ ] The hacker used commercial Photograph: A. T. Willett / Alamy/Alamy The hacker used commercial Photograph: A. T. Willett / Alamy/Alamy Hacking This article is more than 9 years old Hacker fakes German minister's fingerprints using photos of her hands This article is more than 9 years old Jan Krissler used high resolution photos, including one from a government press office, to successfully recreate the fingerprints of Germany's defence minister Alex Hern Tue 30 Dec 2014 06.43 ESTLast modified on Tue 21 Feb 2017 13.17 EST Share It's an old cliche of security researchers: fingerprints might appear more secure than passwords. But if your password gets stolen, you can change it to a new one; what happens when your fingerprint gets copied? That's no longer an abstract fear: a speaker at the Chaos Communication Congress, an annual meeting of hackers in Germany, demonstrated his method for faking fingerprints using only a few high-definition photographs of his target, German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen. German Defence Minister Ursula von der LeyenView image in fullscreen German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters Jan Krissler, known in hacker circles as Starbug, used commercial software called VeriFinger and several close-range photos of von der Leyen, including one gleaned from a press release issued by her own office and another he took himself from three meters away, to reverse-engineer the fingerprint. "After this talk, politicians will presumably wear gloves when talking in public," he joked. Also reported at the conference was another security hole seemingly straight out of science-fiction: a so-called "corneal keylogger". The idea behind the attack is simple. A hacker may have access to a user's phone camera, but not anything else. How to go from there to stealing all their passwords? One way, demonstrated on stage, is to read what they're typing by analysing photographs of the reflections in their eyes. Smartphone cameras, even front-facing ones, are now high-resolution enough that such an attack is possible. Starbug is no stranger to taking on biometric security. In a high profile stunt in 2013, he spoofed Apple's TouchID sensors within 24 hours of the release of the iPhone 5S. Using a smudge on the screen of an iPhone, he printed a dummy finger using wood glue and sprayable graphene, which successfully unlocked a phone registered to someone else's thumb. For that hack, he had to have physical access to the phone he stole the fingerprint from, in order to get a high resolution scan of the print. His latest demonstration suggests that it may be possible to unlock a phone using a fingerprint stolen without ever touching a person or their property - although actually getting hold of the phone is still needed for the last stage, of actually unlocking it. The increasing number of successful attacks against biometric identification has led to some security researchers advising that people change the way they think about security measures such as fingerprints and photo ID. Rather than treating them as a replacement for passwords, they should instead be used as a second factor of authentication, or even as something similar to a username: a publicly known piece of information which must be linked to a password before a user can log in. As the ACLU's Jay Stanley told the Washington Post, "Biometrics are not secrets... Ideally, they're unique to each individual, but that's not the same thing as being a secret." And Starbug agrees, telling Zeit in 2013 that "I consider my password safer than my fingerprint... My password is in my head, and if I'm careful when typing, I remain the only one who knows it." * iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor hacked by Germany's Chaos Computer Club Explore more on these topics * Hacking * Data and computer security * Biometrics * Computing * Germany * news Share Reuse this content Comments (...) Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion Most viewed Most viewed * US * US elections 2024 * World * Environment * Ukraine * Soccer * Business * Tech * Science * Newsletters * Wellness * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning Sign up for our email * About us * Help * Complaints & corrections * SecureDrop * Work for us * * Privacy policy * Cookie policy * Terms & conditions * Contact us * All topics * All writers * Digital newspaper archive * Facebook * YouTube * Instagram * LinkedIn * Twitter * Newsletters * Advertise with us * Guardian Labs * Search jobs Back to top (c) 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)